Armando Hinojosa

Armando Garcia Hinojosa (born 1944) is an artist and educator from Laredo, Texas, who is known for some half dozen major pieces of sculpture, including the massive Tejano Monument on the south lawn of the Texas State Capitol in Austin. The 12-piece monument was unveiled in the spring of 2012.

Sculptor

Hinojosa's Tejano monument includes a Spanish explorer, a mustang-riding vaquero, a mother and father with their newborn infant, a boy with a strong-willed goat, a girl filling a water jug, and two longhorn cattle made of bronze. The statues are mounted on a granite base, which was quarried in Marble Falls in Burnet County, Texas. The significance of each character on the monument is described by a bronze plaque.

The pieces were cast at the Larry Stevens foundry in Bulverde in Comal County, Texas. According to Stevens, ten steps are involved in the process: "The artist sculpts it in clay, then we make a mold and fill that with wax, then we cover it with slurry, then we burn out the wax and pour in the molten bronze. There are a lot more steps. It gets pretty complicated." Other Hinojosa sculptures are the Juan Seguin monument at Seguin Central Park in Seguin, Texas, the Knute Rockne and Ara Parseghian statues at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, and the life-size "Among Friends There Are No Borders" statue at Laredo International Airport, which depicts a South Texas vaquero and a Mexican charro sharing a campfire.

Educator

Hinojosa, who has worked with Stevens for several decades,

Hinojosa and his wife have three children, Dr. Armando Roberto Hinojosa (born 1969), an internist in Laredo; David Andrew Hinojosa, and Melissa Joy Hinojosa.

Armando Hinojosa Drive in south Laredo is named in his honor.